It was cold in the silicon valley and we decided to head to Napa Valley to enjoy some nice wines the region has to offer. What a day it was, nice and sunny not cold at all. We did our homework and went to couple of Welcome Centers in the valley and got some coupons for "free" wine tastings. It does take about half hour or more in each winery so if you plan on tasting wines from a lot of wineries, you should reach there early (around 10 am at least) and plan on being there till 5 pm or so, thats when these tastings close. Also, if you intent to do a tour, which we didn't in the interest of time, you should plan on couple of hours based on the waiting.
Luckily for us not only it was a beautiful day, it was somehow a very less crowded day as well. More because we reached there early and tried couple of really good wines before lunch. I compiled a list of wineries and wines which we visited and my review of each of them. Here is the list.
The Wineries (in the order of visit):
1. Andretti Winery
A really good winery with really good wine. I specially liked the attitude of the people who serve you. They were really nice and helpful in letting us taste and enjoy the wine.
+ Good Cab (or Cabernet Sauvignon) as it is called
- none
Overall: A must visit if you are new to the Valley.
2. Cosentino
+ Really nice Chardonnay
- Average other wines
Overall: I wouldn't mind going there again, but not necessarily a favorite.
3. Diamond Oaks
+ Small and nice location.
- Almost all the wines had a steel cask taste which is a turn down.
Overall: OK overall and can be skipped unless your aim is to cover each and every winery in the valley.
4. Robert Mondavi
+ Big winery, nice gardens at the back and some sculpture stuff which I liked
- None of the wines lived up to Mandavi's reputation, read overall rating.
Overall: What a bummer, big winery, bad to mediocre wines, bad attitude of the servers (may be due to the huge crowd) and what else ... may be more ... I would def. skip it the next time.
5. St. Clement
+ Cabernet was the best of the lot, although it was not as good as Andretti.
- Most of the wines were not great
Overall: One of the best locations in the valley. Very nicely decorated, gives a feeling of those old mountain homes and nice view of the valley.
6. V. Sattui
+ Very good Muscat and Gamay Rouge at a good price
- Lot of crowd, you may end of with a bad server with wrong attitude.
Overall: Little bit more crowded than I would like. You really have to wait a while before you can be served. Some of the wines are good and cheap, so more affordable if you are interested in stocking up.
Some good links for the information about Napa Valley wineries:
http://www.napavalley.org/
http://www.napavintners.com/
Here are some of the pictures from our trip (Credit: Ram's Nikon D40):
Andretti Winery
Robert Mondavi Winery
St. Clement Winery
SFO:
After we left Napa Valley, there was a sudden change in plan, or lets say I wanted to go to "the City" for dinner. Well I always had issues with people calling SFO "the City". Coming from NY, I always thought there is only one *City* in the world: NYC, but what do I know. Bay area people like calling SFO "the City".
Anyways, so we hit the Ghirardelli Square for the second time within a week, had ice-cream Sunday and headed for a place to find dinner ... well yes, dessert comes first for some people. It was a short trip, but I always liked going to city. It has kind of life to it and makes it worthwhile.
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